Balfour Beatty Construction led the design-build team on the 111,000-sq-ft New Federal Building, completing the project in 28 months. The facility consists of office, processing and laboratory areas, including a laboratory designed and constructed to biosafety level three standards.
The building features a robust HVAC system to support the labs, backup generators, uninterruptable power supply systems and redundant primary electrical service. Additionally, it includes antiterrorism/force-protection features.
HVAC controls had to have the expandability to accept postconstruction client equipment and program changes. The mechanical system includes multiple air-handling units for redundancy in the event of a failure.
The project team made extensive use of building information modeling for design and 3-D coordination.
The New Federal Building was part of the General Services Administration’s Design and Construction Excellence Program. The project had to be approved by the National Capital Planning Commission and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, both of which oversee the design of major facilities in and around Washington, D.C.
Key Players
Owner: U.S. General Services Administration
Contractor: Balfour Beatty Construction
Architects: Page Southerland Page
Engineers: H&A Architects and Engineers
